Babies, Numbers, and Love

As we prepare for the March for Life on Friday, we must remain steadfast in our commitment to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves. And we must continue to spread the truth that so many of our fellow human beings are dying before they are born.

According to recent data collected by the Guttmacher Institute—Planned Parenthood’s research arm—the numbers of surgical and medication (RU-486) abortions in the United States for the last five years are as follows:

NOTE: None of these numbers includes the millions of babies killed each year through contraceptive (chemical and device) abortions.

To put this in proper perspective, when I began fighting abortion in 1970, there was a surgical abortion committed every 30 seconds. Today it would seem that progress toward ending every kind of abortion—including those nobody wants to admit are abortions—is nigh on to nothing. We still live in a culture that spews falsehoods to females at an alarming rate. Far too many doctors, researchers, and others repeatedly contend that the pill, the IUD, and other such methods of contraception do not abort babies.

Furthermore, we still hear nothing about the preborn children who die during or after in vitro fertilization and other types of reproductive health procedures. It is as though these embryonic children, from their biological beginning forward, never existed.

But regardless of the propaganda, we know full well that each baby is or was a member of the human family from his biological beginning, not from some arbitrary line drawn in the sand by the enemies of life.

We also know that such numbers are just that: numbers. Numbers do not translate easily into actual human lives and so are always difficult to personalize. But babies who survive in the womb and who are welcomed and applauded even before they are born are easy to depict and to appreciate.

We see a perfect example in this true story:

An unmarried 18-year-old woman found out she is pregnant and shared her situation with her mother, who immediately told her to abort the baby. The young woman was in shock, stupefied by this callous reaction. Scared and alone, she did not know where to turn.

Fortunately for her and her preborn child, she told her story to someone else who arranged for her to be examined by a very pro-life doctor. Miraculously she was then led to a loving woman in her community who cares deeply and lives her pro-life principles by helping others and providing the solace, comfort, and counsel required in a situation like this one.

The young woman received the support and counsel she needed and is now proudly carrying her baby to term.

This young expectant mother is blessed, for she encountered the Good Samaritan in both her counselor and her doctor. For that we can praise God. And it is a lesson to us all that we must reach out to young women who are scared, who have been fed lies from the culture of death, and who feel they have nowhere to turn. We must all strive to be that Good Samaritan—to step outside our personal comfort zone in order to put our pro-life convictions into action unselfishly. This is the epitome of love.

On Friday, we march to show this love and to show that each and every baby is wanted because each is created in the image and likeness of God. We march to show that abortion not only destroys lives, but cripples families. And we march to show our solidarity with the over 55 million babies who have been needlessly slaughtered.

Yes, the numbers are staggering. But so too is Christ’s love. Let us demonstrate this love in all that we do, for when we affirm the goodness of the human person and the dignity of those yet born, we too can replace the disdain in our midst with love.